Aftershock
by LavenderGazelle
Summary: Toph is seriously injured and loses her ability to speak, her sense of hearing and her ability to Bend. Kyoshi is assigned to guard the vulnerable Earthbender but things quickly become much more complicated than that. Others begin to see another side, a softer side, to the Capital Samurai that they've never seen before. Kyotoph, linked to The Forge of Allegiance.
1. Chapter 1

Unclothed from the waist up, the soothing night wind chilled her torso and nipped at her pearl-white skin around the flaring cover of her auburn hair. The draft crept in the open window but she had her covers were pooled around her waist, not bothered in the slightest by it. Light peeked through a crack in the door as it opened and she stifled a low groan, lifting her head as one blink switched her from lightly asleep to fully alert.

The man who lingered in her doorway sighed with exhaustion, absent from the heavy fur coat he usually draped over his shoulders, leaving him shirtless as well—and for some reason that stuck out more than the fact that he was uncharacteristically invading her room in the middle of the night. Usually if he wanted something he _called_.

Of course she knew immediately what he was visiting for. She half-turned, her arm hiding her chest from his sight, not that he was looking anyway. Too busy rubbing his eyes trying to coax the muscles into keeping them from shutting like a trap door.

"Kyoshi, it's been hours since she regained consciousness and she hasn't settled down yet. Every time we try something she becomes increasingly distressed and violent. Please can you do something?"

For once Kyoshi remained quiet as she sat up, her scarred back to him. She reached aside for her tunic as he spoke.

When they entered the recovery room, there was the strong, repugnant stench of herbs weighing in the humid air. Well no wonder she hadn't settled down—it was fucking _boiling_ in the room. The hot bowl of water left on the table by the healers wasn't helping either.

The room was quite crowded with people all stood away from the bed. It filled Kyoshi with annoyance to see them hovering around the wounded Earthbender. She did _not_ need an audience.

"Open up a damn window," she ordered while she lowered the temperature a few degrees. Healers would probably protest against that but they could whine all they wanted. "Half of you don't even need to be in here."

"We're worried," said Katara softly, sitting by the bed. Suki remained quiet against the wall, arms held behind her back, looking a little bit uneasy. "We can't get close to her."

A scoff answered that comment. "Yeah, I figured that. Haven't you thought about giving her space until she calms down? Keep grabbing at her and I _guarantee_ you you'll get kicked in the face."

Kuruk's cerulean eyes were scanning something that nobody noticed. His mind absorbed information greedily like a cloth soaking up water and he compiled it, ready for use. Maybe Suki saw it as well, observant as always, but she remained stonily silent and made no comment if she did.

Katara's lips thinned slightly. "We can't just leave her alone. She's vulnerable."

"Didn't say anything about leaving her alone. I said stop poking at her," Kyoshi repeated slowly.

"I have ascertained that she is aware of her situation," Kuruk explained, hand twitching towards the fresh set of bandages on the table. "But afraid that she will not recover. I have tried various ways of communicating with her but she only has two—possibly three—senses now by which to converse with us."

Kyoshi glanced at him. "What about the Avatar Spirit?"

Kuruk spoke hurriedly, as though he couldn't get the information out quick enough, gesturing wildly as he did so. "Pseudo-Avatar, not a full connection, like a branch hanging off a tree. She kicked off when Aang tried to touch her. Roku tried as well, same result, which means she can't tell it's him either. I tried reaching out telepathically but not so much as a twitch—that little inner voice you hear while consciously thinking sometimes? She can't hear her own, so she's completely deaf, not just physically, otherwise she'd have heard me."

He paced the perimeter restlessly, talking as he walked. "The average person has five senses. Sight, smell, taste, touch, sound. Sometimes six, so let's add psychic just for the sake of being thorough. Smoke damaged her throat so she'll be unable to speak until that heals, I doubt she'll be able to taste anything. Explosion went off right next to her, so her hearing-" Kuruk clicked his fingers "-gone. Too early to tell if that'll come back but I'd hazard a guess and say it _will_, given time. So, no sound. That's two down. She was never able to see anyway but the impact was pretty hard and she's given no indication of Bending so the injury must have removed her second sight as well, which means no Earth- or Airbending. So sight, gone. Three."

"You said she had three senses, but you said before that you tried to talk to her telepathically but she didn't respond," Suki said.

Kuruk clapped and clasped his hands. "Ah, I said that, yes. Aside from the burns, she can still touch and smell what's around her, so she still has those senses. But I'd say we still have a way of communicating with her." The Waterbender gave a devious smile to the looks of confusion he earned. Pointing both forefingers towards Toph, he drew their attention back to the Earthbender.

Who was currently fiddling with Kyoshi's finger, as calm as a lazing cat in front of a warm fire.

Kyoshi blinked, having not noticed the movement before. Then the insinuation of what he was saying hit her and she whirled around on him, eyes burning with disdain. "Do I look like someone's mother to you?" she growled.

"Koko," Kuruk reminded her.

"_Adopted._"

"Difference?" Kuruk waved her away before she could say _I only took her in because I pitied her_. "Kyoshi, think about it. Anyone else she practically mauls. It has to be you. You sat on the bed without realising it because she began to panic again. _She _touched _you. _She _recognises_ you. Probably something to do with your Bond but anyway, the way you've been acting towards her since about a month after you first met, it's not really going to be much different from how you already treat her. You'll just be a little bit more hands-on."

Kyoshi felt her cheeks burn beneath her war paint. "_Excuse me?"_

"You're excused, my dear co-Avatar." Kuruk stretched and yawned, heading for the door. " Well, my work here is done. Call me if you need me. I'm off to bed."

"Oh, no. You are _not _leaving me here to babysit this little shit on my own. You _know_ how much I hate kids._ Kuruk, _get back in here!" Kyoshi leapt up after him but a protesting squeak and a weight on her right side stopped her mid-rising. Toph, mute-blind-and-deaf Toph, was holding onto her tight because of the sudden movements. She looked nervous.

Kyoshi must have growled for a whole half-minute before she kicked everyone out of the room and started sulking.

Roku bit his lip from where he'd stood outside the door. _"Kuruk, was that really the best idea putting Kyoshi in charge of Toph? You know it's disastrous when she's left alone with children."_

Kuruk smiled happily as he lay on his bed, arms folded beneath his head and legs crossed. _"Oh don't worry, Roku. She accidentally kicked that kid out of the window hundreds of years ago. She won't make the same mistake twice."_

"_Uh, yes, she will. That wasn't the first time she did it. And that wasn't the only issue she had when put in charge of a child, either."_

"_True. Point taken. But really, don't worry. Toph's twenty years old. She'll stop thinking of it as babysitting soon enough and see it as guarding her wounded student instead. You know how protective she is. She is the best guardswoman in the world, after all."_

"_And the worst adoptive mother. Alright, but only if you're sure, Kuruk."_

"_I'm sure, Roku. Trust me. Now get some sleep. I have a feeling tomorrow will be interesting."_

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

_So I've had this idea in my head for ages, just haven't written it up. Please suggest themes in the comments section. I'd love to hear from you._

_Gaz_


	2. Body Language

Sitting on the crimson carpet watching her apprentice fiddle with the hem of her shirt, Kyoshi sulked. She was convinced they were doing this to patronise her and remind her just how bad she was when it came to looking after anything shorter and younger than her (which was pretty much everything)—granted Toph was twenty years of age, past the _child_ stage. But the way she was acting, fidgeting and demanding attention reminded her very much of a newborn baby.

She had no idea what the fuck she was supposed to do or what the little brat wanted. When the urge to do _something_ became too great, she removed her crown headpiece and passed it over to the other Earthbender, watching her fingers deftly explore the object put before her.

Touch and smell were the only two ways of communication now. Braille was useless because although Kyoshi knew of it and knew how to read it, Toph most likely didn't. She couldn't read at all. Having been told of her biological parents' incompetence in raising the blind child, she doubted they would have done anything but shelter Toph.

And sheltering someone was, in Kyoshi's eyes, a sign of great weakness.

Kyoshi thrived on instinct. Hers were honed sharper than the bloodstained blade strapped to her side. Sheltering removed the instinct, it removed vital knowledge needed for when that roof was ripped away from overhead and the storm came crashing down on top of them. Exposure to war brought experience and it was that experience that brought strength.

Right now it wasn't Toph's shelter that had been removed, but her own as well. She had raised a child, yes, but one who had never had a roof over their head and knew how to look after herself and required minimal supervision by her. Kyoshi had taken Koko in when her original parents had died and with her work as an Avatar causing her to go places at the shortest notice, she had left her own parents in charge. Back then she had been young. Twenty-five. Old enough in many peoples' eyes to become a first time mother—perhaps too old—but she wasn't a motherly person and she didn't like children. At all. She wouldn't hurt them, she just hated being anywhere near them.

Now, though, she was set before Toph who acted like a newborn with the groping fingers and the incoherent squeaking and the dependency, and she felt that same innate frustration bubbling up inside her like hot magma. It was definitely showing, as well, because she could feel the other Avatars anxiously lingering in the background, pretending not to notice but locking onto her like a Raven-eagle would it's prey.

Toph finished fingering the headpiece and pressed it back into her hands.

Kyoshi set it down beside her and absently reached for something else—one of her fans, expertly tugged from her obi—and thrust it at the young adult. Toph began to study that as well, quiet and vacantly staring ahead of her.

It was her own fault. She was being punished for letting Toph out of her sight, even for that instant. If she hadn't, none of this would have happened. They would be outside or in an empty hall training and sparring like they always did, not sitting in one of the seating rooms of the Fire Nation palace and playing fiddle with the random thing. Kyoshi loved games. She really did. Life was a game, she thought of everything as a game. She wasn't enjoying this one.

Kyoshi huffed when Toph delicately peeled the metal open and exposed the ribs of the fan open, following the contours with her fingertips.

Eventually she was going to have to create some way to communicate with her. Kyoshi could feel the thorny great vines of loneliness and fear coiling around her wrists and ankles like shackles, she just couldn't do anything about it. There were a few ways she had come up with before, a game which required silence and body motions in order to convey some unspoken message, but that generally required sight as well. Back when she had been training the first warriors in combat she had given them basic signals based on that to use when they were tracking and unable to break through a code of silence.

Again, that required vision.

Touch, though … Kyoshi stopped tapping the table beside her as she often did in thought. She needed to come up with touch-based signals. Perhaps a list of the most important ones, and then she could train herself and Toph in recognising and understanding them. Another form of code. It would take a while but she could definitely work it out.

She reached over and brushed the pads of her fingers against the sensitive pale hands, drawing her attention from the fan. Yes. Toph's hands were very sensitive. Not so much as her feet, but there was no reason to touch her feet anyway.

Toph tipped her head slightly and coughed quietly.

Toph was a stubborn one but Kyoshi knew how to get information out of her, given the incentive (or just if she felt like it, she didn't need a reason for everything). Wondering if she was in any pain, she trailed her finger up her arm and lightly tapped her throat.

Not understanding, Toph grabbed her fore- and middle fingers and made an inquisitive noise, like a cross between a squeak and a grunt.

Kyoshi pried herself out of her hand and tapped her throat again.

This time Toph squeaked in what may have been annoyance, grabbing her fingers a second time. With a disgruntled sigh, the Avatar sat back and stared at her student as she rubbed at the porcelain skin. She had just about given up on it when Toph patted around for her knee, rose into a kneeling position and searched for her hand.

She entertained the (quite literally) senseless child with an air of resigned boredom, resting a hand on her shoulder.

Toph fumbled to find out where she was, and then sat back on her heels, patting her throat persistently. What did that mean? Was she in pain? Thirsty? Hungry? Kyoshi sighed, shaking her head and lifting her hand back off.

Maybe there was an easier way to go about this.


	3. Bedrest

Naturally with any young child, they found the best time to make a huge racket at some ungodly hour when most people would be attempting to relax. Naturally, given that Toph created said huge racket whenever she damn well felt like it regardless of the time, she jumped at the chance to rile up and tempt half the palace to assault, vandalism and premeditated murder.

The first warning came from a thump and an almighty crash in the room where Toph was staying. When Suki, her warrior captain, came barrelling through the halls to where she was keeping guard, she didn't need to be told that she was needed elsewhere.

"Take over for me," she ordered, gesturing with her fingers to where she had stood in front of the Fire Lord's chambers. However, she took her time getting to where she needed to be, preparing herself for the inevitable task she knew had been set before her.

Ignoring the angered and somewhat impatient glares shot her way, she scooped her thrashing student off of the ground and unceremoniously dumped her back onto the bed, all the while warning everyone who was in the corridor that if she still saw them when she turned back around then they were all being used as target practice—fifty points if she got them in the head, a hundred in the groin. She took no prisoners.

It looked to her like her Earthbending pupil had got caught in the throes of a nightmare, hyperventilated and got tangled up in the bedding when she had tried to stand up. People had heard the noise, rushed in to assist (_translation: get in the way_) and wound up getting half-battered to death instead.

Kyoshi had no compassion. It served them right.

Her weight depressed the bed when she sat on it, brushing her fingertip against the side of Toph's trembling hand.

Toph coughed and closed her tiny fingers around Kyoshi's larger ones, and Kyoshi began to see how much she was shaking. The storm was hitting her full force; the tears gathering on the edges of Toph's eyelashes was the rainfall, and her sobs were the thunder.

Nobody would sleep once it was unleashed, least of all her.

"Stop it," she ordered on impulse, forgetting that her student was deaf. "Shut up!"

Kuruk's voice yawned through their connection.

"_Is everything okay? Do you need any-?"_

"_No! Piss off!"_

She was not going to accept help from _him. _Kyoshi groaned and combed her hair back.

Oh god, what was she supposed to do now? Her hand was trapped and now she was being cried on. What was the appropriate response? Was there some sort of protocol she was meant to follow? This was all so tedious. Her trigger finger was twitching, as if it wanted to slap some sense into the young woman, but Kyoshi wasn't about to do that. She was healing already and the longer she was like this, the worse it was on everyone.

After a while she began to settle down, though. Kyoshi looked up when she didn't hear any more rasping, huffy noises coming from her apprentice to see that she had stopped crying on her own. Oh god, that was good. It meant she didn't have to give her a soppy hug or some shit.

Maybe now she could go back to her station.

"_Just stay there and sleep."_

She pressed Toph down onto the bed and pushed the blankets up until they rode across her shoulder. Her actions were met with no protest, but when she stood up and went for the door, the blanket was folded over itself and Toph stared wide-eyed in her general direction.

She made a noise, held out one arm as if searching.

Kyoshi pushed her down again, fixed the bedding and then stepped back. A high hum-squeak of protest was all the preparation she got before Toph leapt out of bed. She snatched her up before she could tread on the fragments of broken glass embedded in the carpet.

Avatar Kyoshi changed her mind. Babies weren't this bad, because they stayed where they were bloody well put.

"Damn it. Don't make me tie you to the fucking bed." she growled, pushing her back down. Just for good measure, she pinned her while she Airbent the smashed vase into a nearby bin so there would be no repeat performance.

Toph gave her a pleading look.

Her frustration turned briefly to anger, and then melted away.

Grumbling about manipulative Earthbenders and feeling used, Kyoshi sat back down and sulked. "Fine! Fine, I'll stay here until you go to sleep. But that's it."

She wound up falling asleep before her student did, half of her body on the floor even though she took up practically every last inch of the bed. Toph ended up snuggled into her side.


	4. Curtains

It was incredibly difficult to appear threatening or intimidating when a young woman was clinging to her shield-arm. As Kyoshi organised the patrols, she was aware of her pupil restlessly fiddling with her hand, wanting to go off and explore but too uncertain of herself to do so.

It wasn't like she wasn't trying. Kyoshi had only abandoned her in the corridor about four or five times.

Every time she was found, squeaking in distress and tripping over herself while Kyoshi tried to get something else done, she had been shouted at. But nobody really seemed to understand that she didn't care, nor did she pay any attention when they tried to explain to her why leaving Toph on her own was a good idea.

"Why not?" she replied flatly to Aang's fifth verbal vomiting session towards the back of her head whereby he tried to instruct her in the "correct way" to take care of Toph.

"You have to make sure she …" he lectured, at which point she stopped listening.

It should have been evident by her tone that she was enjoying every minute of their ire towards her and not at all caring about what they said. None of the warriors had said anything to her as of yet. She was waiting to see how long it would take before any of them gathered the courage to challenge her. Something in the back of her mind was telling her she would have to wait a long time, if not forever.

Apparently Kuruk's word had at some point become law—which Kyoshi did not listen to. As the oldest living Avatar of the group he continuously made decisions that would affect the outcome of whatever it was he was deciding for.

Kyoshi didn't mind his presence as long as he stayed out of her way. She was perfectly content to sit back while he dealt with the political nonsense the Nations had dragged from the gutter and washed under a tap dripping with raw sewage. It was only when he tried to interfere in her life or anything that she felt like doing that they had problems.

Serious problems.

Like, for instance, his insistence that she be the one to look after her senseless apprentice. For someone so _apparently _smart he didn't seem to know her all that well enough to understand she hated being told what to do, and would, in one hundred percent of cases, do the exact opposite.

Oh, but if he'd _asked _instead of ordered, _then _she would have obliged.

After about a week's worth of insults assaulting him in one hour.

Grabbing Toph's arm, she led her down the corridor. It took her two instances of her apprentice crashing into things for her to decide to _guide_ her instead. They moved slower, Kyoshi kept to the center of the corridor and tugged on their linked hands to forewarn her about some obstacle.

And that was the first piece of body language they decided upon. Wrist tug translated to _attention._

Toph remembered it and started using it whenever she needed something, too. They would walk in and around the castle for exercise, and Toph, if she decided something needed doing, pulled on her arm and stopped, usually punctuated with a squeak, but not always.

Kyoshi would stop too, ask, "What?" out of habit, or, if she was sitting down, would jab her with her finger to let her know she was paying attention.

Watching them coming up with their own form of language was both fascinating and confusing. Kuruk picked up on every signal, and Suki seemed readily able to translate them as well. It just took guesswork, creativity and observation.

One morning three days after she had been allowed out of bed again, Toph swatted Kyoshi's knee in complaint. The result was that she was bowled over onto the Paisho board by a backhand mimic of the gesture.

Toph got up again and huffed, blinking broken eyes in her general direction as her hand closed around some tiles. They scattered as she threw them, trying to express her minor annoyance. Most of them missed; only two actually hit, but they were quickly brushed off.

Kyoshi narrowed her eyes. An expression of annoyance settled on her pupil's face. Toph reached for more pieces at the same time Kyoshi reached for the first thing she could find—a valuable vase on a coffee table.

It was batted out of her hand before she could raise it, landing safely on a couch cushion, out of harm's way. The tiles, on the other hand, bounced off of her chest. One even managed to hit her cheek.

Roku was trying to look innocent and sternly disapproving even though his Airbending stunt had cost her a hit. Zuko would have shouted at her for the umpteenth time to respect his property, but he was somewhere else, probably having to dodge very sharp throwing stars.

She gave Toph another shove and wound up wrestling with her. Considering that Toph was hardly half her size made for a mildly interesting sight. Kyoshi could just remain seated while she held Toph over her head.

Kyoshi grabbed her wrists and ankles in one hand and let her squirm for a while, blinking at Aang when he conceded, "Well, it would be worse if they were Bending."

Then she set the curtains on fire.


End file.
